Iranian Matchmaking Site Shut Down For Promoting Prostitution

from the seems-a-bit-extreme dept

Apparently an Iranian matchmaking site, that pretty clearly seemed set up for the purpose of linking up potential husbands and wives, rather than traditional "dating," has been banned in the country for promoting prostitution. The details aren't clear, but it certainly sounds like they viewed any kind of internet matchmaking, even for the purposes of marriage, as somehow "promoting prostitution."

Re: Re: marriage

Better

I'm sure that there must be a better way to find a suitable spouse than to let the men and women look for people who meet their preferences. Allah forbid that these people should actually think for themselves. Maybe these "virtues of emulation" guys have some sort of conduit to allah that lets them divine the exact perfect person for each man ... they certainly don't give a sh*t what the women think. Oh, and "Islamic Temporary Marriage"?? Now THAT sounds like prostitution.

Kinda Sorry

I, and it looks like the rest of the posters thus far, have kinda gone off on a rant about the religion thing and the hypocricy built in to it. Tech Dirt is supposed to be about technology and its advantages and abuses. The real abuse here is religion supressing what we think of as basic human rights. So, while I heartily mean to heap derision on certain religious groups and types, this was not the best venue for that. So, apologies to the tech community.

Why don't they just ban women? It's obvious that the men there would be happier if there were no women to tempt the men into having unclean thoughts. It would solve everyone's problems. No women for them to worry about and in 50 years or so, there'd be no more men there for the rest of the world to worry about. Win-win!

Jane, You Ignorant Slut

"The details aren't clear, but it certainly sounds like they viewed any kind of internet matchmaking, even for the purposes of marriage . . . ."

Mike, you should really steer clear of subject matter about which you know nothing. As one poster indicated, temporary marriage is the key here. In Iran especially, it is tantamount to prostitution, where a man "marries" a woman for a few hours or a day or such, then divorces her under Islamic Law by uttering "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you." Were that it was that easy in the West! Bitch is, the man keeps the kids and the woman keeps the money, so divorce is not entertained lightly in a 'real' marriage. You don't utter that phrase, not even in anger, because once spoken you are legally divorced. You can't take it back.

But a half-day marriage does not cause trauma among the tribesmen, doesn't break any laws, and doesn't cost the man much. It is, however, severely frowned upon, so much so that men travel far from home and family for a fling. The Internet just makes it all the more easy for them, doesn't it? Now they don't need to start looking for a bride when they arrive . . . they already have one lined up.

You Don't Know Jack Squat

"I know that young women are promised in marriage to older men at early ages in the middle east. I also know that Islam allows many wives per male. Isn't it a custom in islamic countries to have arranged marriages, and to arrange a suitable dowry? If so, forcing young women to marry some rich dude in xchange for some goats seems to me a little more "whorey" than two people cross-referencing interests in order to pursue marriage."

There's a lot of literature about traditional marriage in the Middle East on the Web, in magazines, research studies, etc. Read a few of them before parading your ignorant assumptions.

Conjecture Kills

Mike, we didn't fill in the blanks here, we wrote the story. Your initial post is a classic example of pseudo-journalism proliferating all over the Web. Sadly, the details were all there, but you are not a trained Middle East scholar and decided instead to take a stab at the subject with some seat-of-the-pants analysis. But as any writer knows, that's a prescription for disaster. So stop whining. Your vignette reeks of opinion and I have zero tolerance for shoddy conjecture.

Details? Here's one for you: name the town in Iran notorious for "Islamic temporary marriage," the Las Vegas of Iran as it were. I suspect if you contacted one of those ladies via their posted e-mail address that's where they would be located.

Re: Conjecture Kills

Cripes, this is not an article but rather 2 sentences with a link. Mike really just stuck in his 2 cents about what it sounds like is going on. He was eliciting opinions on the subject, not abuse for his 2 sentences!